The ‘Star Spangled Banner’ is a patriotic song consisting of words and music about the United States of America.  It is the national anthem and thus played and/or sung at important public events.  It comes at the beginning of an event, setting the tone for the people gathered.

Here is a simple piano delivery of the tune: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/2_Star_Spangled_Banner.mid.  The lyrics are based on a poem – ‘The Defence of Fort McHenry’ – written by Francis Scott Key in the year 1814.

The first two lines of the poem:

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

picture the United States flag as the goal of a quest, a quest to see.  To see it, for Francis Scott Key, meant victory.  In 1814, the flag had fifteen stars on it.  Today, 2017, the flag has fifty stars.  The stars represent the states of the Union.  That Union is an ongoing victory, the achievement of many people becoming one.